Another Somali journalist survives shooting

Nairobi, July 9, 2012--Two unidentified gunmen shot Universal TV reporter and anchor
Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle on Saturday evening near his home in the southern Wadajir
district of the capital, Mogadishu, but he survived the attack, local
journalists told CPJ.

An eyewitness spotted two men removing pistols from their
waists and warned Abdulkadir before the two gunmen shot him four times in the
stomach and leg, according to local journalists and
news
reports. The journalist managed to run inside his house and the two gunmen
fled the scene. Abdulkadir is recovering at Madina Hospital, local journalists
told CPJ.

"Journalists working in Mogadishu continue to pay a terrible
price for doing their jobs," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes.
"Authorities can demonstrate that conditions are truly improving in the capital
by apprehending the assailants who shot Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle."

Local journalists suspect Abdulkadir may have been targeted
by Al-Shabaab insurgents for his political reporting on Mogadishu, particularly
his emphasis on the improving security conditions. The government and African
Union troops managed to push Al-Shabaab
forces out of the capital last year.

Information Minister Abdulkadir Hussein condemned the shooting
and called for an investigation, according to a statement and local reports.
The government urged citizens to help. "The public should not allow the
criminal groups to intimidate them with such cowardly acts and should support
the ongoing security operations," the government statement read.

Members of the public in Mogadishu are often reluctant to
bring evidence forward in such cases, fearing retribution, Abdirahman Omar
Osman, senior adviser to the prime minister, told CPJ.

Somali radio journalist Mohamed Nur Mohamed survived
a shooting in Mogadishu last month. Six journalists have been killed in Somalia this
year, with half of the murders in Mogadishu. Somalia is the most dangerous
country in Africa to work as a journalist, CPJ research shows. The threat of
violence has driven more journalists into exile
from Somalia than from any other country in the past year, CPJ research also
shows.